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Do You Own Your Native Language?
l2718 writes "In a new take on the reach of 'Intellectual Property,' the Mapuche Indians of Chile are accusing Microsoft of linguistic piracy. Their lawsuit alleges that Microsoft needed permission from the tribal elders before translating its software into Mapuzugun, a project which was co-ordinated with the Chilean Ministry of Education." From the CNN Money article: "The Mapuche took their case to a court in the southern city of Temuco earlier this month but a judge ruled it should be considered in Santiago. A judge in the capital is due to decide in the next two weeks whether Microsoft has a case to answer. 'If they rule against us we will go to the Supreme Court and if they rule against us there we will take our case to a court of human rights,' said Lautaro Loncon, a Mapuche activist and coordinator of the Indigenous Network, an umbrella group for several ethnic groups in Chile."
Be right back, about to file a language patent for "English"
Kllskjlf KJkJLFKJG L S jksldjl!! ; lkj flkjLk!: JF; kj
The actual name of the language is Mapudungun.
Can Jim Henson sue Google over their option to translate to Swedish Chef?
Bork bork bork!
Would you kindly mod me +1 insightful?
the absurdity of the contemporary take on IP, and perhaps the idea behind is to demonstrate this.
To me, a language clearly is in the public domain.
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
On the other hand, though, if this is a small tribe and they only teach the language to other tribe members, and Microsoft intends to make a profit off using this language, then maybe it is some sort of "human rights" issue.
I'm usually quick to join any group bashing of Microsoft, but this one strikes me as more than a bit stupid. By making their software available in more languages, Microsoft is performing a service. They can choose not to buy it if they don't want it. It's not like native speakers of other languages will be lining up to purchase Office in some obscure language like this.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
The actual name of the language is Mapudungun.
Clearly they got it wrong to avoid being dragged into court. You, on the other hand, have opened yourself to a lawsuit!
If the tribe only teaches the language to other tribe members, then the only profit Microsoft can make is by selling the version in that language to the tribe. Which means that if the tribe wished to deny them that profit they could simply boycott that version of the product.
My initial reflex would be to say that you cannot own a language. Then again, however, what if you invented a language? What if I wrote a book claiming that I invented Elvish? Could whoever holds the copyright for Tolkien's work sue me?
And what about accents? If I start using an accent on a show, and it begins to be associated with me. Then, someone else uses it. Can I sue them?
I am not sure, but I think that the answer is this:
A language is a way for people to communicate. That is, it is a system known to both of them, using which they can send each other messages. One can patent such a system to prevent others from using it. I am not sure, but I do not think that the tribe patented their language. Therefore, I doubt that they have any grounds on which to sue.
The iffy area, of course, is when does one have to pay royalties? If I create a language, patent it and teach it to you, and then, you teach it to your friend, do you or he have to pay me royalties? Here, I am not sure.
called "human female", please, please, PLEASE release it into the public domain so the rest of us can maybe hope to understand it!
Monstar L
I think this is stupid if they wish to preserve the language. If tribe members have to use a different language in order to use a computer, then those that decide to use computers may simply drop the language that the computer doesn't support.
I don't think Microsoft has wronged anyone by supporting more languages. I don't think it makes any sense to object to Microsoft making money on a translated product. They shouldn't be expected to support the language for free, as in no charge for the software, so the alternative is to not support it at all.
Lots of nations standardize their own native language and regulate its use, so I don't see why a group of people cannot regulate the use of their own language.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Does Microsoft pay the government of France a licensinge fee for producing a French language version of their products?
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
So let me see if I get this straight -- the Mapuche tribal leaders are making the claim that Microsoft needs their permission to use a language because, well, they say they own this language? OK... later on in the article, a Mapuche leader makes the claim that he's afraid that their language might become like Latin, i.e. spoken and read only in universities, but that the solution to the problem is to make Mapuche an official state-sponsored language, alongside Spanish. Pardon me, but that objective seems diametrically opposed with the current legal action against Microsoft. Preventing Microsoft from incorporating Mapuche into Windows does nothing but retard the usefulness of the language, or am I missing something? It certainly opens up a whole can of questions about a state's sponsoring a language, but only to a select group of people, with control held by a tiny group of non-state leaders. Where's the sense in that idea? Where's the logic? Are these guys simply smoking some kind of native herb that I've never heard of, because that's the only 'logic' I can see in this whole silly situation
I suspect that the tribal leaders have another agenda here, namely fleecing Microsoft out of a few bucks for the right to incorporate the Mapuche language into Windows. That idea I can understand, even if I don't support it. It will be interesting to see what the Chilean courts decide. On one hand, there's a cash-cow opportunity for them to make a ruling that will benefit a group of Chileans by thumbing their noses at one of the richest companies in the world. On the other hand, it sets a bad precedent for businesses, and I wouldn't even want to think about the lost economic opportunities a ruling for the Mapuche might have.
One thing's for sure -- remind me not to go to Chile with my camera. God forbid I should snap a photo and deprive these people of their right to control their cultural heritage or something. Hell; they they sound like the kind of people who might believe that I'm stealing their souls when I take a picture. I guess those beautiful llama photos will just have to wait till next year.
I am right, if you ignore all the inconvenient facts that make me wrong.
On the surface, it may seem quite absurd. However in TFA, I couldn't find any specific mention of the motives behind the Mapuche council's objection. Note that Mapuche leaders do not necessarily represent the will of every member of the tribe. However if we assume that there is support from the general populace, my guess would be that:
1. The Mapuche and Andean people have a history of being lied to and manipulated by the Chilean government, usually in the interest of integrating them more within the European society and economy, often resulting in people being forcibly removed from their ancestral home territory so the land can be exploited for corporate gain. As a result there could be a general distrust for any type of corporation, especially those from the US. Mining and logging companies, for example, have been a major cause of displacement and environmental destruction, which has deeply affected the sentiments of native peoples toward capitalistic enterprise.
2. There is a fear of the bastardization of their language by Microsoft incorporating and "standardizing" it. It could be that many are satisfied using Spanish language software from Microsoft.
3. Remember that traditionally the native people of South America have a completely different world view from those of European descent. Society, religion, economy, technology are all perceived differently. It may be that the people actually don't want the opportunity of being exposed to this software in their native language. We may think it's "what's best for them," but really how can you or I decide that? The history of doing what we think is best for an indigenous culture of the Americas has been that of moving them into our world without really understanding that they may really want to keep their way of life, and "progress" as we often define it (e.g. technology) is really not beneficial from their perspective.
To many, this may seem arrogant, or a grab for money. Without hearing a proper explanation of the motives behind this resistance, I feel nothing can be concluded. I think it's important to realize that other cultures view the predominant society from a different perspective and may see further integration as a threat to their way of living.
What if Micky$oft hadn't included Mapudungun as a language option?
What repercussions of anti-Mapudungun fudd would we be seeing? Would the story read, "Microsoft sued for racial profiling against the Mapuche?" Would we also see quotes from the Mapuche tribe saying, "Microsoft is nothing more than language bigots for not recognizing our people, and their language as part of the human race?"
Either way, I'm not surprised this story came about, and I won't be surprised if it happens again in the future. One way or another, I can't help but think this all boils down to...money.
Shane
Not quite.
The government (or, more specifically, the 'Office Québécois de la Langue Française') used to require that a french version was available for non-entertainment software (the case that broke this law was when Windows 98 was delayed a few weeks because the French version wasn't ready at the same time as the English one was).
More recently, though, they have required that all software that did not come with a French version include a French-language instruction manual. This includes console games, and for the longest time, stores received hundreds of copies black-and-white shoddily translated game manuals for consoles, at game launch (not included in the boxes). Made it a huge pain to track all of them and to hand them out to customers.
Game companies have figured it out, though, and now most include bilingual manuals in-box.
Incidentally, the term "language police" is quite offensive to francophones such as myself, as well as anyone who has realized that French in Quebec actually was very well in danger of being wiped off by the deluge of English signs and companies up until the Quiet Revolution, and even, to a lesser extent, since then. There used to be a time where you could not be served in French in any businesses in Montreal, nor were there any French-language signage. I dare say that if it weren't for the "language police", it probably still would be the case.
While some of their tactics are quite heavy-handed, most of their actions are in fact very reasonable and help make Quebec a great place to live, in both official languages.
But...they didn't invent it. That's the problem. They learned it from their parents who learned it from their parents. Languages are not created. They evolve. Nobody can own one.
How small is small? There are 604.349 Mapuches (2002, http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapuche) in Chile, which translates to 4% of the population. There are quite a few Mapudungun dictionaries (I own one) and many, many places in Chile have Mapudungun names (Puyehue, Llanquihue, etc.). It is only spoken by the Mapuches (I don't remember the last time I heard someone speaking Mapudungun), but it is widespread, even if us chileans don't realize it. From reading local newspapers, the reason that this "tribe" (as many people here are calling it) does not like that Microsoft has invented a written version of a language that is originally only spoken. The way it is currently written is by a "spanishization", meaning that latin letters are arranged so that when you read the word in spanish it sounds like the original word in Mapudungun (there are some Mapudungun sounds that don't exist in spanish, thus they had to "invent" letters like the umlaut). Anyway, I digress. The point is that Microsoft had to invent a way of writing Mapudungun, and since this language isn't modern, they also had to invent new words (email, configuration, etc). I think that they are complaining that this was not done in a public manner.